EXCLUSIVE: Nicolas Winding Refn is teaming with James Bond scribes Neil Purvis and Robert Wade on a new feature project that the Danish filmmaker will direct. It is still early days, and details are being kept under wraps about the plot other than it will have an Asian setting with both thriller and action elements. Winding Refn is developing and producing the project with his longtime partner Lene Borglum through their Space Rocket Nation banner.

Collaborating with Purvis and Wade, who specialize in upmarket, smart and commercial fare, would seem to indicate a desire by Winding Refn to return to a more mainstream space. The no-punch-pulling director burned himself into Hollywood’s conscience with his ultra-cool and uber-violent Drive in 2011. Even though he’d already established himself as one of Europe’s elite genre aesthetes prior to that with his classic Pusher trilogy, it was that Ryan Gosling vehicle — with its mix of retro and ultra-modern sensibilities — that seemed to mark his card as a major A-list stylist. Instead, his follow-up, Only God Forgives, again with Gosling, felt like a misstep. That film, set in Bangkok’s underworld, was gorgeously shot but esoteric to the point of, well, pointlessness.

Refn’s latest, The Neon Demon, follows an aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles only to find her youth and vitality devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has. With a cast including Keanu Reeves, Elle Fanning and Christina Hendricks and its Hollywood setting, it returns the director to the milieu that delivered his commercial success to date.

Purvis and Wade are one of the UK’s premier writing teams. The duo have event TV series SS:GB, starring Sam Riley, about to go into production. The drama is set in a UK conquered and occupied by Germany during World War II. The title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS that controls Britain. They also co-wrote the latest Bond Spectre, the sixth 007 installment they have worked on.

The duo and Winding Refn previously collaborated on the TV adaptation of sci-fi femme epic Barbarella, which is set up at Amazon Studios. Winding Refn is repped by WME and Independent Talent Group. Purvis and Wade are repped by UTA and Casarotto Ramsay and Associates.

Refn is also producing a remake of 1980’s cult pic Maniac Cop through Space Rocket Nation with Borglum. John Hyams directs that project, which is set to go into production in the summer.

The Neon Demon sees Elle Fanning as an “aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles, where her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.”

Nicolas Winding Refn Lines Up To Italian Noir Cop Series 'Les Italiens,' Netflix Reportedly In Talks For The Showvia The Playlist

For years now, Nicolas Winding Refn has been attached to a TV reboot of "Barbarella," which is set up over at Amazon Studios but has yet to get going. But he's not giving up on the small screen, and he's got another project brewing, one that's both surprising and intriguing.

Variety reports that Refn has been tapped as the showrunner for an Italian noir series titled "Les Italiens." Based on the book series by Enrico Pandiani, the show will follow an all-Italian group of policemen working in Paris' Quai des Orfevres headquarters, and their tough and violent inspector, Pierre Mordenti. Sounds like gritty stuff, and getting the ball rolling will be Refn, who will direct the first entry in the series, then take the reins as showrunner for the 8- to 10-episode first season.

Netflix are reportedly in talks to pick up the show, and given their huge international reach it sounds like a good fit. No word yet on when this might roll, but let's hope it doesn't get stuck in development hell.

What Have You Done To Solange? is rounding out a trio of classic horror remakes being undertaken by Nicolas Winding Refn. The 1972 giallo film was originally helmed by Massimo Dallamano and produced by Fulvio Lucisano. As with the upcoming re-dos of Maniac Cop and Witchfinder General, Refn will produce but not direct. His Space Rocket, in which he’s partnered with Lene Borglum, is teaming with Lucisano and his Italian International Film on the project.

Much as with Witchfinder, on which he’s partnered with Rupert Preston, Refn is teaming on Solange with a longtime collaborator in Lucisano who has released all of his films in Italy. He also produced 1965’s Planet Of The Vampires, a restoration of which Refn presented in Cannes last week. The Danish filmmaker tells me he’d been eyeing Solange for some time, and he and Lucisano had recently talked about hooking up on a remake. But it was the day after the Planet Of The Vampires screening that they decided to officially move forward.

Loosely based on the Edgar Wallace mystery novel The Clue Of The New Pin, What Have You Done To Solange? is set at an all-girls school where a killer is on the loose. Gym teacher Enrico Rosseni, who has been sleeping with one of his students, becomes a suspect and sets out to find the real killer. Ennio Morricone scored the original.

Refn calls it an “absolutely incredible Italian giallo movie. One of the great, great horror films from the period.” The giallo genre began in Italy in the mid 60s and rose to popularity in the ’70s. Films are often characterized by mystery, horror and eroticism. Dario Argento and Mario Bava are among the names most associated.

The addition of the title to Space Rocket’s slate, Refn tells me, is part of a “continuing renewal of genre movies, and bringing them to a new audience. I’ve really cherry-picked films that I think have a strong potential to be reinvented and also something that is artistically out there.”

Overall, the roster of remakes is also part of a desire on Refn’s part to bring more independent genre movies back to LA. Maniac Cop, which is the first in a trilogy, and Solange will shoot locally. Refn says, “We produced Neon Demon very successfully in Los Angeles for a very minimal price and it was a great experience for everyone. It’s such a shame that the city doesn’t have more of those kind of productions because there’s such a need for it to keep the independent industry alive.”

Development on Solange begins today; Refn took preliminary meetings in Cannes to start talking about directors and writers for the $5M-$10M budget pic. They won’t necessarily be first-timers; “There’s no written law, just who’s best and right for the job. Open season as always,” says Refn.

As for going into production, Refn says it’ll be whenever it’s possible. That’s the main challenge since he’s planning his next directorial effort for next year. “This has to fall in between even though I’m only producing,” he says.

A former European spy accepts a confidential mission from a Japanese businessman exiled to France to take down the head of the most treacherous Yakuza boss in Japan.

But it’s in the extended synopsis where the story gets truly fascinating, as it looks like once again, Refn will have (as the title suggests) a protagonist who doesn’t say much at all:

The spy was one of the leading spies in Europe. An injury inflicted to his vocal cords during a failed mission six years ago left him mute, forcing him to leave his profession. Now, six years later, he is sought out and put on confidential assignment by a former Yakuza, now a retired Japanese businessman in exile in France, to track down and kill the head of the most dangerous Yakuza family in Japan.

Afraid of flying, our spy anonymously boards a cargo ship headed for Tokyo. An onboard explosion sinks the ship and our spy finds himself washed ashore on a life raft in southern Japan. As a mute, our spy must silently journey through Japan seeking 4 clues – symbolizing conquest, war, famine, and death – which will guide him to the unknown location of the Yakuza boss. Meanwhile, the Yakuza boss, known for his 2004 mass slaughter of Yakuza members who had turned against him, is believed to be plotting to reenter the Japanese underworld after living in his own surreptitious world in the mountains, void of all technology. This way of life becomes an obsession for the Yakuza boss. Rumors spread that he had committed suicide years ago but escaped prisoners from his hidden camp told stories of his plan for a comeback. Now rival Yakuza families suspect he is forming a master plan to return, a plan that unburies the most infamous story of Yakuza betrayal.

Our spy finds himself on an existential journey through Japan in search of pieces to the puzzle that will lead him to a confrontation with the ultimate Yakuza boss in a terrifying conclusion.

Nicolas Winding Refn Is ‘Too Old To Die Young’ At Amazonvia The Playlist

While “The Neon Demon” might’ve died in theaters, only Amazon knows how it did on their service, but this much is clear: they want to stay in the Nicolas Winding Refn business. The streaming service which is nipping at the heels of the dominant Netflix is eager to add high profile filmmakers to their roster, and giving them the budgets and freedom they need seems to have attracted talent ranging including Woody Allen, Whit Stillman, Jill Soloway, Todd Haynes, Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-Wook….you get the idea. And if you have that creative space, why would you leave?

That must be part of the thinking for Refn who has been given a straight-to-series order for “Too Old To Die Young” from Amazon. The show which he is co-writing, producing, and will direct, is said to be in the vein of the director’s “Pusher” trilogy, and will follow drug dealing Danish criminals in Los Angeles and their “existential journeys from being killers to becoming samurai’s in the city of angels.” Well, that’s certainly on brand for Refn.

Production on the ten-episode “Too Old to Die Young” will get underway this fall in L.A., and I would presume with casting and likely a lot of pre-production still to happen, it means his brewing feature “The Avenging Silence” will have to wait.